Uncovering Salafi jihadist terror activity through advanced technological tools

This study investigates the evolving challenges intelligence and law enforcement agencies face in countering Salafi jihadist terrorist activities across digital platforms, focusing on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and data fusion technologies in open-source intelligence (OSINT) methodologies. Through an analysis of case studies involving ISIS and other non-state actors, the study examines how terrorist organisations adapt

The Radicalization Risks Of GPT-3 And Advanced Neural Language Models

In 2020, OpenAI developed GPT-3, a neural language model that is capable of sophisticated natural language generation and completion of tasks like classification, question-answering, and summarization. While OpenAI has not opensourced the model’s code or pre-trained weights at the time of writing, it has built an API to experiment with the model’s capacity. The Center

NATO Science for Peace and Security-funded Advanced Research Workshop on ‘Terrorist Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response’

A NATO Science for Peace and Security-funded Advanced Research Workshop on ‘Terrorist Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response’, jointly organised by VOX-Pol and the University of Swansea’s Cyberterrorism Project, was hosted at Dublin City University from 27 – 29 June, 2016. The invitation-only workshop provided an opportunity for the 60 participants which included academics,

The VOX-Pol Blog Editorial Team

The VOX-Pol Blog publishes weekly on Wednesdays on the topic of online extremism and online terrorism. It began in 2014 and now has over 500 entries. Each Blog post is added into the VOX-Pol Online Library so it’s searchable by title, topic and author. The Blog publishes original research, article summaries, book reviews, editorials, and

Exploiting the Algorithm: How British Extreme Right-Wing Individuals and Groups Leverage Grok and Generative AI for Malign Purposes

By Alice Sibley and Joshua Bowes As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated and embedded into social media platforms, wariness around its harmful exploitation has grown. As previous research has shown, malignant actors, ranging from misogynistic online users to extremists, have exploited AI to spread harmful conspiracy theories, share racist images and disseminate disinformation. Generative

I analyzed more than 100 extremist manifestos: Misogyny was the common thread

Karmvir K. Padda, University of Waterloo Two years have passed since a 24-year-old former student walked into a gender studies classroom at the University of Waterloo and stabbed the professor and two students. The attack left the campus shaken and sparked national outrage. Many saw the attack as a shocking but isolated act of violence.

‘I got sent something of people shooting themselves’ – research shows young people can’t avoid harmful content online

Dougal Sutherland, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington A new report from New Zealand’s Classification Office has revealed how young people are being exposed to harmful content online and what it is doing to their mental health. The Classification Office spoke with ten different groups of young people aged between 12 and 25

Critical Reflexions on “Composite”, “Fused”, or “Mixed, Unclear and Unstable” Extremist Ideologies (and Concepts)

By Stephane J. Baele The rise of “composite” extremism – and of its classifications Over the past few years, cases of violence apparently inspired by unclear or hybrid ideological motivations seem to have multiplied in OECD countries, prompting scholarly debates, law-enforcement worries, and, more recently, political declarations. Particularly striking or lethal instances that receive significant

Strategic Military Information Support Operations for Countering Digital Terrorist Threat Networks

The exploitation of social media platforms by terrorist threat networks (TTNs) represents a critical challenge to national security that traditional counterterrorism frameworks struggle to address. This study examines how military information support operations (MISO) can be strategically leveraged to counter TTNs’ exploitation of these platforms for radicalization, recruitment, and operational planning. Through analysis of operational